Exam

Question 1

What is an embedded democracy ?

Answer 1

Stable constitutional democracies can be embedded in two ways:
 INTERNALLY: the specific relations of the different partial regimes of a democracy secures its normative and functional existence.
 EXTERNALLY: these partial regimes areEMBEDDED IN SPHERES ENABLING CONDITIONS for democracy that protect it from outer as well as inner shocks and destabilizing tendencies.

Question 2

Briefly explain the five partial regimes.

Answer 2

 ELECTORAL REGIME: This is the expression of the sovereignty of the people, the participation of citizens and the equal weight of their votes is a need (universal active suffrage, universal passive right to vote, free and fair elections, elected representatives).
 POLITICAL RIGHTS: They complete the vertical dimension of democracy and make the public arena an independent political sphere of action, where organizational and communicative power is developed (freedom of speech, of association, of demonstration).
 CIVIL RIGHTS: They are central to the rule of law. The State is bound to its law and must act upon its prerogatives. There can be a norms control by an institutional organ.
Also, some rights are inherent to individuals and they are protected from the tyranny of the majority.
 HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND DIVISION OF POWER: Elected authorities are controlled by autonomous institutions and may be pinned down to constitutionally defined lawful action. There is a separation of power and constitutional check and balances.
 THE EFFECTIVE POWER TO GOVERN: The elected representatives are the ones that govern. The government and the parliament must possess sufficient decisions making authority.

Question 3

What is a defective democracy ?

Answer 3

Democracy in which the partial regimes are no longer mutually embedded, the logic of a constitutional democracy becoming disrupted.
 Exclusive democracy: One or more segment of the population does not have access to civil rights.
 Domain democracy: Groups of interests take certain political domains out of hands of democratically elected representatives.
 Illiberal democracy: Weak constitutional control, the principle of rule of law is damaged.

Question 4

Be able to differentiate parliamentary and presidential regimes.

Answer 4

Voir le tableau.

Question 5

How Duverger define “semi-presidentialism” ?

Answer 5

According to Duverger, a regime is semi-presidential when 3 criteria are fulfilled:
 The President of the Republic is elected by universal suffrage.
 He possesses quite considerable powers.
 He has opposite him a Prime Minister and ministers who possess executive and governmental power and can stay in office only if the parliament does not show opposition to them.

Question 6

What are the insitutions of federalism ?

Answer 6

 A written constitution that is difficult to amend.
 A bicameral legislature with a strong federal chamber to represent the constituent regions.
 A supreme or constitutional court to protect the constitution though the power of judicial review.
 Intergovernmental institutions and processes to facilitate collaboration in areas of shared jurisdiction.

Question 7

Why is the written constitution so important in federal countries ?

Answer 7

It has a crucial function: Defining the DIVISION OF POWER between the NATIONAL level and the STATE level of governments.

The essence of federalism is TWO SPHERES OF GVT neither of which is sovereign but each of which has defined and limited powers.

It creates the national institutions of government with specified powers WHILE GUARANTEEING the continuing existence of subnational states or provinces with their powers.

Question 8

Why it is so important that the constitution is difficult to amend ?

Answer 8

The purpose of having difficult-to-amend constitutions is TO PROTECT THE HIGHER LAW CHARACTER of the constitution that controls the other institutions of government.

Question 9

How are judicial review and bicameralism related to federalism?

Answer 9

Federalists system must have two different chambers: one for to represent the people of the regions, one to represent the constituent regions.

There must be INTERGOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS AND PROCESSES to facilitate collaboration in areas of SHARED jurisdiction. (ex: Budesrat)

Question 10

What is federalism according to the minimalist definition?

Answer 10

 Two levels of government rule the same land of people.
 Each level has at least one area in which it is autonomous.
 There is some guarantee of the autonomy of each government in its own sphere.

Question 11

What is a unitary system ?

Answer 11

 Central government has the final say of everything they want to.
 Central government can, if it so chooses, delegate some of the power to regional authorities.
 The authority which is given to regions and local entities can easily be taken back again.

Question 12

What about Spain and federalism ?

Answer 12

Its Constitution defines it as “one and indivisible”.

17 autonomous communities with an asymetric level of decentralization of competences.

Asymetric federalism ?

It lacks a territorial chamber representing the 17 Autonomous Communities

The institutional framework of Spain is of a central state with the characteristic of having ceded some competencies to the regional level.

Spain opted for the “à la carte” method- but at the same time kept certain homogeneity in the governance system for those regions that either did not wish or need to have more autonomy.

The governance of Spain has been fragile and the lack of a proper senate or regional chamber has meant that all negotiations between regional governments and the Spanish government have had to take place on a bilateral basis and there has never been an open discussion between the regions as to how they would like to see the state organised.

 Federalism is in Spain assumed to be one-time decision, this is federalism by union.
 Spanish regions do not participate in constitutional reforms directly.
 There is a lack of Federal Senate and a Noncooperative Federal System.
 There is a low level of fiscal autonomy (not much control over revenue).

Question 13

Explain : Single-member plurality, Alternative vote and 2RS.

Answer 13

 Single-member plurality (FPTP: First-past-the-post): Voters simply make a mark, such as placing a cross, beside their choice of candidate, and the seat is then awarded to the candidate who receives most votes.
 Alternative vote (AV): Voters can rank order the candidates.
 Two-Round System (2RS): If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the 1st round, a second round takes place in which only certain candidates are permitted to proceed to the 2nd round, where whoever wins the most votes is the winner.

Question 14

Explain PR.

Answer 14

The proportional representation (PR), which can be achieved by many different methods, has the aim of AWARDING TO EACH GROUP OF VOTERS ITS FAIR SHARE OF REPRESENTATION.

The idea is to allocate to each party the same share of the seats as it won of the votes.

The distribution of seats in parliament reflects the distribution of votes (disproportionality: degree of difference between these two distributions).

Question 15

Why is disrict magnitude so important ?

Answer 15

It refers to the NUMBER OF LEGISLATIVE SEATS ASSIGNED TO A DISTRICT, ranging anywhere from the exclusive use of single-member districts to a system where the entire country functions as a single district.

District magnitude is the primary determinant of an electoral system’s ABILITY TO TRANSLATE VOTES CAST INTO SEATS WON proportionally.

The district magnitude IMPACT political parties, candidates, and campaigning.

• Small district magnitude make stronger links between individual candidates and their local constituencies.
• Large districts give a stronger proportionality, and when more persons are elected from one district, they are more likely to represent various points of view, so more voters will feel that their opinion is represented in the legislature.

District magnitude thus has an effect on the extent to which voters feel that their views are represented.

Question 16

What does intra-party choice mean, and what different options are there ?

Answer 16

Under single-member constituency systems, there is no intra-party choice because no party runs more than one candidate.
Under PR systems, the degree of choice varies.
 Some lists offer no intra-party choice: closed lists. The party determines the order of its candidates’ names on the list and the voters cannot overturn this. The opinions of the voter upon the candidates does not matter and is not considered.
 Some others offer intra-party choices: preferential/open lists. The voters can indicate a preference for an individual candidate on their chosen party’s list.

Question 17

What are thresholds ?

Answer 17

The electoral threshold is the MINIMUM SHARE OF THE PRIMARY VOTE which a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to any representation in a legislature

Thresholds constitute a way to prevent very small parties from winning seats (for example to prevent undue fragmentation of parliamentary strength and to facilitate the formation of stable government / Can also be a desire of larger parties to discriminate the smaller).

Ex: Slovakia: No party that receive fewer votes than 5% can win any seat.

Question 18

How is district magnitude and natural thresholds related ?

Answer 18

Some countries do not use explicit thresholds, but nonetheless their electoral system imposes an implicit threshold, based mainly on the district magnitude (number of seats per constituency).

Smaller district = HIGH natural threshold
Bigger district = LOW natural threshold.

Question 19

What different consequences do the different electoral systems have ?

Answer 19

1) Duverger’s law says that there is a causal relationship between electoral systems and party systems:
 The single-member plurality system was associated to with a two-party system
 PR was associated with multiparty systems.

2) When LOW disproportionality + FRAGMENTED parliamentary strength as it is most of the time in PR systems = The likehood of any one party winning an overall majority is lower than under a non-PR system.
3) PR systems make more representative socio-demographically and politically the parliaments composition.
4) Non-PR systems are more likely to lead to a TPS which is more stable rather than a multiparty coalition.

Question 20

Explain the cleavage theory.

Answer 20

 Two revolutions: The Industrial and National Revolutions created SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL divisions opposing different social groups, elites, sets of values, and interests.
With the birth of modern parliaments and free elections, and with the progressive extension of franchise, political parties developed and reflected the socio-economic and cultural divisions created by the two ‘revolutions’. Modern party families appeared as the ‘political translation’ of social divisions in systems in which conflict is increasingly settled through vote.

 Four cleavages:

1) Centre/Periphery: Liberals and conservatives face resistance to state/administrative centralization and cultural standardization.
2) State-Church: Conflict between liberal and secularized state against clerical and aristocratic privilege, and over religious education, influence of church in politics, democratic institutions.
3) Rural/Urban: Conflict between industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy on trade policies: agrarian protectionism vs. industrial liberalism.
4) Workers/Employers: Employers vs. the rising working class on job security, pensions, social protection, degree of state intervention in economy.

 New cleavages:

1) Materialism/Post materialism: New values, individualization, self-fulfilment, equality.
2) Winner/Losers of Globalization: Economic globalization has created a further post-industrial cleavage between sectors of the economy that profit from the blurring of economic boundaries, and sectors that are negatively affected by the competition from new markets and cheap labour from the East and Asia.
3) Age…

Question 21

Explain the different types of party system.

Answer 21

 Dominant party systems: One party has more than 50% of the votes during several decades. The other parties are legal but simply not popular, as it is the case in South Africa since 1994 with the ANC.
 Two-party systems: 2 parties are dominant (but there are also other parties). One of the dominant parties is the winner, and can rule the country even without a coalition party, as it is the case in the USA or in the UK before 2010.
 Multiparty systems: There are 3 or more parties. All parties get less than 50% of the votes which leads to coalition governments. The parties have different sizes, some are larger, some are smaller. There is a better representation of the voters but also a government instability.
1) Moderate multiparty systems have less than 5 parties. There is a convergence toward the centre. Small parties have quite a lot power when it comes to coalition formations.
2) Polarized multiparty system lead to coalitions between the centre-left or centre-right.
 Bipolar systems: There are several parties but they cooperate intensively before the elections. There are often two bigger coalitions of parties. An example is CDU+CSU in Germany.

Question 22

Explain the median voter theorem.

Answer 22

The median voter theorem states that “A MAJORITY VOTING SYSTEM WILL SELECT THE OUTCOME MOST PREFFERED BY THE MEDIAN VOTER”.

When voters engage in issue voting, competition between two candidates has the effect of pushing the candidates’ issue positions toward the middle of the distribution of voters’ preferences

Question 23

Four common elements of the different definitions of party.

Answer 23

 Objective: Gaining control over governmental power through the capture of public offices and the organization of the government.
 Methods: Making nominations and contesting elections… and the organization of the government.
 Competition: Contesting the election in the hope of gaining control
 Autonomy: of the group of citizens.

Question 24

What are the different functions of political parties ?

Answer 24

COORDINATION :

1) With the parliament : Through parliamentarry groupswhich send the MPs to different commitees. Usually, one party = one group (Ex: In Germany, a group of min 5% of the MPs can form a group).
2) With the society : Organizing the political activity : political discussion, education, coordination of collective action.
3) Between Gvt & Society : Members of the parliaments and membersof the political party.

CONTESTING ELECTIONS :

Only members of parties are candidates, most of the time. Parties against parties. Parties finance the campaigns.

RECRUITMENT :

The parties find people who are willing to hold offices and select candidates in different elections. They also make decisions concerning who should be in the government and different important offices.

REPRESENTATION : Of the members and citizens in parliament, electoral cmpaigns,media,public discussions.

Question 25

What are the different types of political parties ?

Answer 25

 Cadre or elite parties: First developed in Europeans parliaments while suffrages were highly restricted. Not organized beyond the boundaries of individual constituencies. No central offices. The parties are constructed around the important persons.
 Mass parties: It has extra-parliamentary origins. It begins with a core of leaders who organize a party central office with the aim of developing a party to be able to win elections and ultimately gain public office. Mass parties claim to represent the interest only of a particular group or a social class and is frequently built on the pre-existing organisations of that group (ex: trade unions).
 Catch-all parties: This is an evolution of the mass parties in response to its success. A greater attention is given to the function of contesting elections, to the detriment of other party functions such as integrating or representation groups or opinions in politics or formulating and debating policy. There is a professionalisation of political strategies. Parties are electoral-professional. The same organization as in the mass parties but less democratic (controlled by the elite).
 Cartel parties: This is an evolution of catch-all parties. Forming of a carter to protect themselves from electoral risks and to supplement their decreasingly adequate resources with subventions from the state. There is also a diminution of the importance of representation but a confidence given to states-agencies rather than to society. There is a development of internal democracy. At least, an importance is given to political expertise instead of political experience and activism.
 Anti-cartel parties: They tend to expect a much deeper commitment from their members and or more organized around an idea rather than a social group.
 Business-firm parties: Short-term party. Corporation.
 Parties in the US. What they have in common with the cadre party are: a weak central organisation, a focus on individual candidates rather than enduring institutions, and the absence of a formal membership organization. But they are extensively regulated by law.

Question 26

Explain Decommodification.

Answer 26

“the concept refers to the degree to which individuals, or families, can MAINTAIN A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE STANDARD OF LIVING independently of market participation”.

Decommodification appears as the central characteristic of the welfare state, and efforts to DECOMODIFY LABOUR are posited to be the main goal of social democracy. Since decommodification is defined as exit from the labour market with little or no loss of income, social democrats’ emphasis on decommodification clashes with another purported goal of social democracy, high labour force participation.

Commodification: transformation of goods, services, ideas and people into commodities (or objects of trade.)

Question 27

What is stratification?

Answer 27

If social stratification usually refers to the kind and degree of distribution of resources (e.g., wealth, status, prestige, and privilege) within a social system, then political stratification is best understood as the extent to which such inequalities are encapsulated in, or influenced by, political structures and processes.

Question 28

What are the interactions between State, Market & Family?

Answer 28

Welfare states based upon three principles:

• Decommodification (the extent to which an individual’s welfare is reliant upon the market, particularly in terms of pensions, unemployment benefit and sickness insurance)
• Social stratification (the role of welfare states in maintaining or breaking down social stratification)
• The private–public mix (the relative roles of the state, the family, the voluntary sector and the market in welfare provision).

In the Liberal regime countries, STATE PROVISION of welfare is minimal, benefits are modest and often attract strict entitlement criteria, and recipients are usually means‐tested and stigmatised.

The Conservative welfare state regime is distinguished by its “status differentiating” welfare programmes in which benefits are often earnings‐related, administered through the employer and geared towards maintaining existing social patterns. The role of the family is also emphasised and the redistributive impact is minimal.

The Social Democratic regime is the smallest regime cluster. Welfare provision is characterised by universal and comparatively generous benefits, a commitment to full employment and income protection, and a strongly interventionist state used to promote equality through a redistributive social security system.

Question 29

Illustration of the theory.

Answer 29

See the table 31

Question 30

Explain the trade-off between the level of abstraction and the scope of the countries.

Answer 30

See table 32.

Question 31

What are the advantages and disadvantages of comparing countries ?

Answer 31

See table 33.

Question 32

Most similar system design & most different system design.

Answer 32

MOST SIMILAR : Different outcomes with similar countries.

MOST DIFFERENT:
Similar outcomes with different countries.

Question 33

What is ecological fallacy?

Answer 33

Inferences about the nature of individuals are deduced from inference for the group to which those individuals belong.
Ex: We know that countries with higher female labour force participation are in general also countries with the highest levels of fertility rate. FALLACY: Women who work outside the household have more children than women who stay at home.

Question 34

What is individualistic fallacy?

Answer 34

Ex: We know that women who are not active in the labour market (homemakers) have more children than women who work full-time. FALLACY: Countries with low female labour force participation should have higher fertility than countries with higher female labour force participation.